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posted by martyb on Friday September 28 2018, @04:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the EVs-are-making-a-charge-on-ICEs dept.

Roadshow:

The BMW i3 has been on sale since 2014, and in that time, BMW has seen fit to expand its battery size and, by proxy, its range. For the 2019 model year, it's getting yet another battery upgrade, and it's a big one.

The 2019 BMW i3 will come with a 42.2-kWh battery (120 amp-hours), which should permit for up to 153 miles of all-electric driving. This is a roughly 30 percent improvement over the previous 94-Ah battery, which allowed for 115 miles of range. The i3's first battery was just 60 Ah, offering a range of just 81 miles. Oh, how far we've come.

BMW will offer the battery in both variants of the i3. The standard i3 uses a 170-horsepower electric motor, powerful enough to get the little EV to 60 mph in just 7.2 seconds. The i3s, on the other hand, is the sportier trim, offering a 181-hp electric motor and a 6.8-second sprint to 60.

Will EVs (electric vehicles) like this succeed in replacing ICEs (internal combustion engines) as commuter cars?


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  • (Score: 2) by aim on Friday September 28 2018, @07:37PM

    by aim (6322) on Friday September 28 2018, @07:37PM (#741500)

    Don't get me wrong - I like the design of some of many BMWs, and I used to drive an E46 330Ci. But, as beautiful as I find the highly expensive i8, as ugly the i3 is to me, and appears very small for the price (I get to see some in the neighbourhood).

    Considering the limitations of an electric car, I'd only consider one as the 2nd car - a small and cheap one for a daily commute, not the "main" larger car to take the family to holidays. The i3 may be small, but way too expensive for the task. Even french Renault may be closer to that goal, less so with their Twizzy, but rather with the Zoe.

    Then again, I use a motorbike for daily use (excepting very unclement weather).
    I'm not aware of an electric motorbike fitting my profile though - price and performance comparable to a gas powered mid-range enduro. The Zero bikes are rather high-end for both performance and price, the smaller KTMs are purely for motocross and still expensive, but I miss something in the class of, say, a Yamaha XT or Suzuki DR - and I won't even dream of an electric one costing approximately the same as those conventional bikes.

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